Reviews for Nonlinear Science: The Challenge of Complex Systems

The average rating for Nonlinear Science: The Challenge of Complex Systems based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-05-02 00:00:00 Marvin Blanco An interesting - albeit extremely challenging - read on the depths of contrasts between lineal and non-lineal systems in nature and mathematics. Hidden within the heavy maths are a few fascinating treasures on the underlying structure of the equations that model most natural and abstract phenomena, and fresh insights on chaos and complexity. Some interesting things I learned and/or took conscience of from this read (mostly notes to self): (1) Complete order and complete disorder are two extremes of simplicity, and it is the coexistence of them which we call complexity. (2) While choosing a correct scale in the modeling of a system is key for an appropriate understanding of it, non-linearity in nature spontaneously selects the scales: "the phenomenon itself determines the scales." (3) Fractals exist in systems of equations that model the natural world (from one hierarchical level to the next), and that is why similarity of appearance can be observed between cosmic and microscopic natural systems. (4) The reason why similar structures are sometimes produced on different hierarchical levels is because a new (small) structure is created while almost preserving the old (large) structures. "If the old structure were totally destroyed, similarity could not exist on different scales simultaneously. The complexity of the fractal is produced by a subtle balance of transformation and preservation". Could this be true also for ideology or world view? (5) The reason why the whole tends to be more than the sum of its parts is because summations or averages fail when structures are organized. "Owing to structures (inhomogeneities), a macroobject is not a mere summation of micro-objects. While summation makes individual differences average out, a structure maintains differences, allowing various functions of elements to emerge." (6) The wings of a butterfly do not cause storms or tornadoes.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-05-20 00:00:00 Halcombe Kendall "The future is disorder." ― Tom Stoppard, Arcadia “The unpredictable and the predetermined unfold together to make everything the way it is.” ― Tom Stoppard, Arcadia Half of what draws me to physics, to theory, to Feynman and Fermat, to Wittgenstein and Weber, is the energy that boils beyond the theory. The force living just beyond the push. I'm not alone. Many of my favorite authors (Cormac McCarthy, Thomas Pynchon, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) and musicians (Mahler, Beethoven, etc) all dance around this same wicked fire. This burn of the natural world, this magic of the unknown, is what draws me to read physics and philosophy as an absolute amature. There are pieces and fractures in these books that actually DON'T escape me. They hit my brain and spin and keep spinning forever. I imagine this is something felt also by Gleick, one of the top tier science writers out there. My big grievance with this book is it falls too short. His narrative is compelling, yes, the stories are interesting, sure, but he doesn't grab the central characters as well as a new journalist like John McPhee does. He floats too far above the actual science and complexity. He shows you pictures and dances around the pools of chaos and clouds of complexity, but never actually puts the reader INTO the churning water or shoots the reader into energized, cumuliform heaps. This is a book for an advanced HS senior or an average college Freshman. It is pop-science and definitely has its place. This is a book that is more about translating the story of the science (not the science) for NOT the layman, but really the lazy layman. That is probably one of the reasons it did so well. Anyway, I'm glad I read it, but just wish it was deeper, thicker, and way less predictable.